1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and a method for automatically collating and cartonning product units. The apparatus and method of the invention are particularly suitable for automatically collating and cartonning soft packages of product such, for example, as form, fill and seal packages. However the invention can also be applied to a wide range of other product types, packaged and unpackaged.
2) Description of Related Art
The process of providing groups of product units in respective buckets on a bucket conveyor from which the product groups are delivered into corresponding respective cartons on a cartonning line is well established within the cartonning industry. The use of servo-trains to load the bucket conveyors is also known. Typically, product units are delivered individually from an infeed into the buckets of two or more servo-trains positioned to either side of an endless bucket conveyor. The product units are then transferred group-wise from the servo-trains into a series of buckets carried on a bucket conveyor for collating the units to form product groups. The bucket conveyor then transports the product groups continuously downstream to a region in which the product groups are discharged using product pushers into a corresponding series of respective cartons.
EP 0695703 A1 (CAMA 1 SpA) discloses a servo-train conveying apparatus that is suitable for use in such a process. Said apparatus comprises two or more independently driven servo-trains that are arranged side-by-side and are adapted for movement between a loading station and an unloading station. Each servo-train comprises a plurality of cells, each of which is adapted to receive a single product unit from a product in feed. The servo-trains are loaded in turn, and when each is fully loaded it is moved off to the unloading position, where the product units are then removed from the cells and possibly diverted, individually or in multiples, to feed hoppers, conveyor chains, subsequent grouping and conveying systems (e.g. bucket conveyors), hands, robots etc., for example for final packaging in boxes, trays cartons and the like. For product units to be cartonned in groups therefore, the units may be delivered from the apparatus of EP 0695703 A1 onto a conventional bucket conveyor for collating and transport to a cartonner.
EP 0967163 A2 (Yamoto Scale Co., Ltd) discloses a boxing system comprising a boxing machine for packing groups of product units into boxes, each group comprising a predetermined number of said units, and collating means for receiving said product units from a product infeed, collating them to form said groups and conveying the groups to said boxing machine. Said collating means comprises two independently driven chain pairs that are arranged side by side and extend between a loading station and an unloading station. Each chain pair carries two sets of portions that are spaced apart along the longitudinal axis of the chain pair to define said predetermined number of cells, each cell being adapted to receive a single, respective product unit. The chain pairs are driven such that each set of portions is moved in turn with intermittent motion past the product infeed at the loading station to receive a product unit into each cell When a set is full, the chain is then driven at higher speed to move the set to the unloading station, whilst the next set on the other chain pair is loaded. At the unloading station the chain pair is paused and the group of product units is pushed from the set as one onto said boxing machine.
Said boxing machine comprises a sliding gate, on to which the group of product units is delivered and below which is positioned a box, open at its upper end and adapted to receive said group, reciprocating front, rear and opposing side holding members adapted to support and align the product units of the group, and a reciprocating pusher for pushing the group downwardly into the box upon opening the sliding gate. The box system of EP 0967163 A2 is thus adapted to collate and box product units one group at a time.